Running In Circles || Nicholas Ruffilo

five

Cassidy

"We're kidnapping you tonight," Davis says, leaning over Tyler and I's desk.

"That sounds very illegal," I retort, incredibly confused. "What are we doing?"

"Team building over happy hour," he responds smugly. 

"Oh, I don't really have-"

"No one is letting you pay for a damn thing," Davis cuts me off. I look to Tyler for help, but he just shrugs and nods along with it. I shake my head with a tight grin and redirect to my sketchbook. The day passes slowly, knowing that my liver's impending doom would be happening later.

-

We close early since no one had anything on the books for the rest of the day. I tried really hard to sneak away, but Tyler ended up just throwing me over his shoulder and walking us to the bar across the street. He finally let me down with some very concerned looks from the security team outside, but I reassured them that I was halfway there on my free will. 

"You can't do that, people will think you actually kidnapped me," I say, shoving Tyler playfully, causing him to chuckle back at me. I'll admit, he is a really attractive guy. If we didn't work together, I would maybe pine after him, but he's ultimately not my type and we are coworkers. Not only that, but he's my mentor. 

"What's your poison?" Davis asks as he has the bartender's attention. Everyone from the shop is here, and it's not my favorite situation, but if I can get drunk for free, I'll do it. I don't do this a lot.

"Silver tequila," I say with a daring smile. There's such a negative connotation of tequila, but I have never gotten a hangover from tequila before. It always settles well on me.

On cue, Davis grimaced in response, but ordered it anyway. I was the only tequila shot, the rest of the guys getting whiskey shots. All of us pulled a face, it being the first drop of alcohol on our taste buds of the day. It's natural, it's fine to pull a face. 

"Do you like beer?" Davis asked me through the thickness in his voice from the shot, making the others laugh at him.

"Ehhh," I trailed off, looking to the bartender. "Do you have seltzers?"

"For sure," he responded cheerily. 

"Whatever seltzer you have, thank you," I responded nicely. I could feel Nicholas' eyes boring into me, the clear upset that I was able to be nice a service worker reeking off of him. The bartender came back with four Modelo's and a strawberry White Claw for me. We all wandered outside to a table. "And to be clear, I like beer, but it's weird with tequila," I clarified to Davis.

"That's fair," he responded neutrally. "So, did you grow up here?" he asks, clearly trying to get me to open up. 

"I actually grew up in Chicago, but my old retail job gave me a good offer to move away so I did," I answered honestly, taking a long pull from my seltzer. 

"I mean it seems like it sucks to actually live in Chicago, but what was so bad about it?" Vincent asked.

"It wasn't the worst, but sometimes you just need a palette cleanser, you know? Just get away from everything and start over," I offered. 

"I did the same," Tyler offered, making me look to him. "I grew up in Texas and needed to get away, and my roads lead me here, too," he gestured his beer bottle towards me for a cheers, which I met and took another swig of my drink with him. When I caught Nick's eye, it felt like he was glowering at the companionship of Tyler and I. 

The night is a frenzy of shots and beers and seltzers and I am on drink five when the boys order us pizzas to split. I am practically lying on Tyler's shoulder, my body feeling too damn heavy after the tequila that I rarely consume. I perk up at the sight of the plainest of plain cheese pizzas, it being my go to drunk food. The world may be spinning, but I can ignore it if I have pizza.